Justice League: Battle for Metropolis Construction Update #7

Six Flags Magic Mountain had a few of us out on Friday, March 10th for a construction tour of Justice League: Battle for Metropolis, as well as a close up view of other changes being made to the newly themed area. This is Magic Mountain’s very first dark ride, and everyone is very excited about it. What sets Magic Mountain’s version of this ride apart from all of the other that have been built is that this one will have three additional screens/rooms, and is the only one that contains Harley Quinn. It also has an all new ending.

Before we even got close to the construction site, we had to don our hard hats. Safety first:

Just like the previous construction tours that we’ve been on the past few years, today’s tour was hosted by Bruce Thompson, Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Construction Manager:

The new show building, which is being constructed from the ground up where the Batman Action Theater once stood, looks big from a distance. As you get closer, it gets even bigger. The front of the building looks very bland right now, but it will eventually receive a façade that will transform it into the Hall of Justice. The doorway in the middle is the entrance and the door on the far left will be the exit:

Here’s what it will look like once completed:

The exit will be through a brand new gift shop, which will be located just inside the left side of the building:

The inside of the building is over 23,000 square feet and is quite cavernous. None of the interior walls have been built yet, so you can see just how big it really is:

As guests enter the building, through the door that Bruce is pointing at, they’ll be in the first of three rooms where a Hall of Justice welcome video will be playing. From there, they move into the Cyborg Lab, with Cyborg himself. Lastly, they’ll move into the loading area where they will get their 3D glasses and load the ride vehicles:

We are standing where the ride vehicles will be loaded and unloaded from the raised platform. There will be an inverted “T” rail mounted to the ground, which will both power and guide the ride vehicles. The path it will follow has already been marked out:

A small service room is the first interior room to be built. It will contain electronics and show controls, including smoke effects. There will also be a large monitor mounted on this side of it that guests will see as they load the ride vehicles:

I took this pano from the corner where Cyborg’s Lab will be located:

The far corner of the raised platform will house both a wash room, where the 3D glasses will be sterilized, and an electrical room. You can already see the tracks on the ground that outline where the walls will go for the electrical room:

If you peek outside one of the three doorways in the previous photo, you will see the Riddler’s Revenge queue pathway. This portion of the Riddler’s queue will be closed down and repurposed as part of the Justice League queue. The Riddler’s queue will be shortened. Once you pass through the Riddler’s entrance, you will go straight and not turn left:

There’s quite a bit of space along this side of the building, so it’ll be interesting to see how big the queue eventually is:

From the artist’s renderings, you can see the entrance to the queue feed down that side of the building:

It was a fairly warm day during the tour, but it was nice and cool inside the building. That’s because unlike the other Justice League builds, which use blanket insulation inside regular metal building panels, Magic Mountain used insulated panels, which do a much better job at keeping the heat out. As you can see in this next picture, they are also investing heavily in a massive air conditioning system. This ride will be nice and cool, and definitely the place to be during the hottest summer months:

I thought it was interesting that the interior walls along the perimeter of the building are completely separate from the actual exterior walls, with a decent gap between them. I’m guessing this makes it easier to run electrical and other infrastructure behind the walls:

In the very back of the building, there is another large doorway leading to a smaller room behind. This will be the maintenance shop. An overhead crane will reach into the main show building to pluck the ride vehicles off the track when they need to be serviced:

This is the interior of the maintenance shop, hanging off the back of the building:

This is the maintenance area as seen from behind the building:

There will eventually be a fence preventing people from walking between the new beer garden and the Justice League building:

As you can see in this drawing, the fence will secure the left side of the building:

The old Waterfront Commissary (i.e. food location) is getting a complete makeover, and it needs it bad:

We have been informed that the eateries located in this building will now be known as Big Belly Burger, Munchopolis Snacks, and Carlini’s Pizza:

This gazebo was part of a viewing platform for a puppet show that took place on a pirate ship that used to be in the lagoon that was here. The pirate ship disappeared long ago and the gazebo has been hidden behind a fence, until now. It will be part of a brand new beer garden called Metro Park Pub that is being built on this side of the new food locations:

The rest of the new Metropolis plaza will remain pretty much as it is today, other than some basic sprucing up:

In addition to a new green space as you enter the area, with plants and bushes, you may have also noticed something different about The Riddler’s Revenge. It has been confirmed that it will be receiving a new paint job. The new color scheme is a lighter and brighter green track, with bright yellow supports:

Earl’s Gas Station, which once housed the on-ride photo booth as you exited The Riddler’s Revenge, has been demolished. This will receive a concrete patch and will serve as open space in the Metropolis Plaza:

The Tidal Wave entrance, which is currently in this plaza area as well, will be moved to the other side of the ride, along the main midway. It will not be a part of Metropolis, however I believe the exit will remain unchanged and feed into the Metropolis Plaza, as it does today:

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5 Comments

Steve J.

03/12/2017 at 5:46 pm

Thanks for the update Kurt, great shots. I know a lot of other pages people are not happy with Riddler’s new paint. I have no problem with the colors per se, but has there ever been a green and yellow Riddler ? I do like the colors and the fact it will separate it more from Green Lantern. My biggest complaint with this whole thing is not throwing an Aquaman sign on Tidal Wave. They did it with Flash and Wonder Woman, just a simple sign and a new character could have been added. Maybe there is a record breaking Flume Ride in the works for Aquaman to replace the Log Ride, haha, I wish. Maybe see you at the coaster run in a couple weeks, thanks, Steve

BRUH, I SWEAR, YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD ABOUT THEMING TIDAL WAVE WITH AQUAMAN, THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING. They could’ve called it “AQUAMAN’S TIDAL WAVE”, since most of that section of the park is D C Universe/The Movie District.

Plus I was thinkin’ since they took out that old run down “gas station” by Riddler,that would probably leave enough room to put a good flat ride in that area, maybe a Zamprela frisbee, or troika also with a good theme of a superhero or villian. IDK, just wishful thinking.

Thanks for the update Kurt. I just think with Tidal Wave sitting in between DC Universe and the new Metropolis, it should be re-themed to something to do with the DC characters. Doesn’t make sense to me to just leave that ride in the midst of it all.. Oh well.

This could also mean the end of Tidal Wave. Let’s face it—Tidal Wave isn’t the big thrill it once was and is fairly dated (opened in 1989). I don’t want to see SFMM lose another water ride, but it would open some space for something new down the road—perhaps a superhero-themed Buccaneer Battle ride. You never know…

Just wanted to chime in one reason for leaving a space between the interior and exterior walls of the show building has to do with insulation. When there is air packed between two insulating surfaces it’s the best way to not only keep the cool air inside the buildin, but better sound proofs the noise inside the building as well.

That’s too bad we lost Earl’s (?) Gas Station, again another piece of the parks history of spectacular park themeing that we just don’t see much more of from the park these days. All for a slab of concrete. Would a foliage box really have killed them? Oh well.